Dallas Baby Shower

This past weekend was my baby shower here in Dallas hosted by my dear friend Susan! Susan and I met when I moved to College Station before my 6th grade year. We both went to Tech and have grown closer over the past several years living here in the DFW area. She has an adorable 15 month old daughter, Carlee, and has been such a huge supporter and help throughout my pregnancy! I am so glad to have her as a "Mommy friend" and role model and look forward to all the fun times that we have ahead of us!

me and Susan

The shower was fantastic! Susan's house was decorated so cute and everything matched Cade's nursery just perfect!

Cute wreath that was hanging on the front door to welcome everyone

YUMMY food!!!

diaper cake that matched the wreath

little jungle animals decorating the table

my invitation and baby book were on this table

drink table

We played a couple of fun games at the beginning of the shower and I realized I have quite a bit to learn! The first game was to match the mommy animals with the baby animals. I did good on all the farm animals but was pretty terrible when it came to the zoo and exotic animals! Gregg's Mom is a kindergarten teacher and blew all the rest of us away at the game! The second game was a baby "Price Is Right" and we had to pick the right price of various baby items. I have A LOT to learn about these prices!!! (I think I got 4 out of the 10 items right!)

Playing games

Mrs. Miller (Susan's sweet Momma) came to town to help with the shower

overalls with a firetruck on them from my Dad
onsies that my niece Bailey picked out for Cade

big boy firetruck pj's
burp cloths that my Mom made

Thanksgiving bib and burp cloth made by my Mom

basket of goodies from my cousin Mikka

bib for Gregg and Cade from Gregg's Mom, Beverly

soft jungle blanket

cute new bag for Cade (I LOVE everything and anything that has his name on it!!!)

Carlee helping opening up the exersaucer

SOOO excited about our swing and exersaucer from my sweet girlfriends

part of my baby bedding!

a quilt that my Mom is making to match the bedding

(it has all the same fabrics in it that the bedding does)
wonderful gifts for baby Cade

me and Grinna (my Mom)

Mee Mee (Gregg's Mom), me, and Grinna

me and my 97 year old Great-Aunt Cleacy

Thanks Susan for throwing Cade and I such wonderful Baby Shower! And thanks to everyone who came to the shower! Our little family is so grateful for all of the love and support that we have received from our friends and family throughout this pregnancy and we look forward to introducing everyone to our precious boy in November!

Trip to Lubbock- Concert, Maternity Pictures, Tech Football and Baby Shower!

We flew to Lubbock last Friday morning (technically we flew to Amarillo and drove to Lubbock because it saved us $400 to fly to Amarillo) to see family, have my maternity pictures made, and have my first baby shower!!! Gregg's Dad picked us up from the airport and we met his Aunt and Uncle in Amarillo for lunch before heading on to Lubbock. We stopped of in Plainview quickly to see Gregg's Mom at school and then went to my parents house.

We got tickets several months ago to go see the Zac Brown Band Friday evening with Gregg's 2 sisters and brother-in-law. The concert was really good! They played all their music off the current CD plus a lot of great songs from their new CD that comes out this week. They were very patriotic and showed a lot of pictures/ videos of their recent USO concert in Iraq. Robert Earl Keen even stopped by the concert to play a quick song before going to his own concert that evening. (He was playing at KA Kalf Fry) My favorite part of the evening was when they played Charlie Daniel's "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" and Cade went absolutely CRAZY!!! He was dancing and having a good little party in my belly and it was so fun to feel!

Saturday morning we got up early to go meet Lynette and have my maternity pictures made! We had so much fun taking these pictures and are really looking forward to our next photo shoot in November with Cade! I love the preview pictures that Lynette posted and can't wait to see the rest of the pictures from the day!

After pictures on Saturday we changed clothes and headed to my parents tailgate area to hang out and watch the Tech game! My feet started swelling on Friday and were HUGE on Saturday so I was banned to the recliner in the travel trailer for the day with my feet elevated. Luckily we had TV in there too and Gregg's sisters, brother-in-law and baby Landry all came to watch the game in the trailer with me! I ventured outside at halftime since it had cooled off significantly and sat in my new reclining lawn chair that kept my feet elevated. The game was fun to watch during the first half but a little hard to stomach for the second half. I love my Red Raiders and while I was disappointed with their performance overall I still believe in and support this team and the coaching staff and think we have potential. It was great to see Tech with a defense after being an offense only team for the last 10 years. Now I just hope we can find a good balance between offense and defense that will keep us in the mix for the rest of the year! I look forward to our next game in 2 weeks and am interested to see what Tech does with their bye week. Wreck 'Em Tech!!!

My Mom's friends threw me my first baby shower on Sunday! It was a such a great shower and Gregg, Cade and I are truly blessed to have so many amazing friends and family members in our life! This little boy is loved and VERY spoiled already!!!

Me with the wonderful hostesses

YUMMY food!

Me, Landry and Misti (Cade and Landry are going to have so much fun together!)

getting ready to open up presents

adorable sock monkey

pictures for the nursery

perfect blanket for our future Red Raider!

sweet blanket that Gregg's mother made for Cade!

our highchair from the hostesses

Thanks to everyone who was at the shower and for all the wonderful gifts for Cade! We can't wait to be back in Lubbock with our little guy in November and introduce him to everyone!

32 Week Pregnancy Update!

I am over a week late on this post and am actually 33 weeks now but want to go back and blog about week 32 so as to stay on my every 4 week schedule!

I was 32 weeks Pregnant on September 13!!!

(just a cool picture I found on-line of a 32 week boy in utero)

Again, I just left the pertinent questions that have new answers to read!

Total Weight Gain: According to my 32 week OB visit, I am up 23 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. I am a few pounds over where I would personally like to be but am happy overall because most of my weight gain is still in my belly and most importantly Cade is growing as he should be! (He is measuring a week behind still but has grown from our appt 2 weeks ago and so my doctor isn't concerned.) I do have to admit that while I can still wear my normal scrub pants and even a couple of pairs of regular jeans that I have I can tell that my hips are starting to spread just a tad and I am starting to see a tad bit of the "pregnancy face" on myself when I look in the mirror!

Sleep: Pretty much a hit or miss type of thing. Sometimes I sleep and sleep good and sometimes I wake every hour or so to reposition myself or go to the restroom. I really can't complain too much though because I am able to fall back asleep pretty quickly for the most part when I wake up.

Best Moment this Week: I would say the best moments over the last couple of weeks have been our Labor Day weekend trip to Lubbock and having my parents in town to visit this past weekend! We have had so much fun getting to see our families so frequently over this last month and look forward to the 2 upcoming weekends we have with family again!

Movement: Cade is still moving like crazy all of the time! Being a L&D Nurse I am anxious to see what his umbilical cord looks like at delivery!!!

Food Cravings: Cherry Lime Freeze from Braum's! Gregg and I stopped at 3 different Braum's on the way home from Lubbock last weekend looking for one with Cherry Lime Sherbet. We finally started calling Braum's and had to make a special trip through Irving to get me a Cheery Lime Freeze!

Anything make you queasy or sick?: Luckily, I have had very little problems with heartburn and know I am fortunate in that aspect. However, I think the nausea is returning and will be my problem over these next few weeks instead of heartburn. I get nauseous about 30-45 minutes after eating and have gotten sick a couple of times recently.

Labor Signs: Still having the occasional bouts of Braxton Hicks contractions but no true signs of labor yet!

Belly button In or Out: Barely hanging "in" there for now. It is getting closer and closer to popping out, which I am totally dreading!!!

Happy or Moody most of the time?: Happy but emotional! I get my feelings hurt very easily these days and tend to cry if someone looks at me wrong!

Milestones: I have 2 Baby Shower's coming up over the next 2 weekends! I will be picking up my bedding on Thursday and should have it in and everything hung on the wall by next weekend! We will then have our nursery all ready to bring home a baby!!!

Weekly Wisdom: Don't ask for a light load, but rather ask for a strong back. - Anonymous

Labor Day Weekend in Lubbock

We made an unexpected trip to Lubbock Labor Day weekend to visit my Grammy because she was in the hospital. Grammy was hospitalized the weekend before with a SEVERE headache and spent about a week there before being released. She was home 1 day and taken back to the hospital by ambulance. When she was admitted the second time I decided that I had to go and see her and so we loaded up Friday afternoon and headed to West Texas! Luckily, they decided that Grammy just had an overwhelming sinus infections with all of her sinus cavities completely encapsulated but they had to rule all the other more serious stuff (brain tumor, stroke, meningitis, etc...) out first before they reached this conclusion. The strange thing about the sinus infection is that my grandmother had the surgery to clean out all her sinuses just 4 months ago and has been very diligent in caring for herself since then. Grammy had Guillain-Barré syndrome about 20 years ago which started with a sinus infection and put her in the hospital for 6 weeks and bed ridden for about 6 months. It took her almost a year to completely recover and has made her so sensitive to head colds and sinus problems since then. All of us were so afraid that the Guillain-Barré was coming back.



We got to Lubbock really late Friday night and just went to my parents house to go to bed. Saturday morning we had breakfast with my parents and then went to the hospital to visit. It was so good to see Grammy finally and to see that she was starting to feel better. Every time that I talked to her on the phone she sounded so bad and scared me. We spent most of Saturday at the hospital and then went to meet Gregg's family for dinner that night. I got to love on sweet Landry which is always a plus in my book!!!



On Sunday we got up and went to meet Gregg's family for breakfast at Red Zone Cafe before heading to the hospital. Tech played that afternoon and this little cafe was COVERED in Red and Black. The food was awesome and quickly became a favorite breakfast place of Gregg's in Lubbock! After breakfast we went to the hospital to visit with Grammy again. She had had a little bit of a rough night and wasn't ever able to get comfortable and rest any. Around lunchtime we convinced my Grandfather to let us take him to my parents tailgate spot for some good, non-hospital food and sunlight! He really enjoyed all the yumminess and the time away from the white hospital room walls. Gregg and I took him and my uncle back to the hospital and then we returned to the tailgate and spent the afternoon watching Tech's first game of the season and win against SMU! I am excited about the potential this team has and am quickly becoming a Tommy Tuberville supporter!!! (I will admit that there was a time I was on Team Leach and not too excited about our new coach but the more I have learned about him and have heard the players talk about how much they like and respect him has totally converted me. I still feel that Leach was wronged in the way everything went down but also feel it was time for him to go.)



Monday morning had us back at Red Zone Cafe for breakfast with both of our families and then back at the hospital. We spent a couple more hours with Grammy and left town feeling much better about her status and knowing that she would soon be discharged.



I was so thankful that Gregg and I were able to make this trip home to Lubbock to check on my Grammy and visit with all of our family. Family has always been important to each of us but is becoming even more of a treasure now that we are expecting our first child.

Christmas Stocking

I have been looking at different Christmas stocking for several months now trying to decide what new "family" stockings we wanted to get that could grow with our growing family! I originally wanted Pottery Barn stockings because they had one with a firetruck on it for Gregg but they have discontinued that one. :( I had looked on E-Bay a bit for the stocking but wasn't completely sold on purchasing it.

My Mom was at Hobby Lobby a couple of weeks ago and found stockings there for me to make and so I have tackled the task! I am starting with Cade's and plan to have it done by Christmas and then will work on mine and Gregg's stockings for next year.

Cade's new stocking

Gregg's stocking (My FAVORITE and the reason that we bought these stockings!)

I have ordered this kit for me (I am going to modify it a little to make it have a tag for the name and look more like the boys stockings)

I cut the big front piece for Cade's stocking out this weekend and then separated all the sequins and beads but had to wait to get new needles and other supplies before getting started. I went to Michael's yesterday and started the stocking last night! It is VERY tedious and time consuming but I am so excited that we will have really special stockings to hang every Christmas!

There are sequins up top on the blue part and then the window pane is started

I have big plans to work on this more over the weekend! I know that I need to really get A LOT done over these next 9 weeks before Cade makes his arrival since my world will completely change after that!!!

Pool Party

Last Saturday we got together with my girlfriends from Junior High for a pool party! We all got met up around 2pm and spent the rest of the day outside enjoying the sun and water. It was my first time to get into a pool this summer and I was so excited about feeling weightless and being able to float! (I wasn't too excited about putting on a maternity swimsuit however!)

A lovely self portrait before the party (29 weeks 5 days)

We decided for everyone to bring their favorite dip for us to snack on and that we would order something for dinner later in the evening. We had a yummy pesto hummus dip, spinach dip, fruit and fruit dip, chocolate brownies, and every one's favorite Pizza By The Scoop plus lots of cold drinks to keep everyone happy! I have to admit that I have SERIOUSLY been craving a cold beer here lately. I think it is the crazy hot weather that we have had recently that has just made a beer sound really good. So, while Gregg and I were out shopping the night before we scoped out the non-alcoholic beer section and bought a 6 pack of non-alcoholic Coors! Surprisingly enough they were really good and totally hit the spot!

Courtney and I enjoying our "beer"

(She is 15 weeks pregnant)

We ended up going to have dinner at the "Feedstore" in Southlake (Really GREAT BBQ if you are looking in that area!) After dinner we went back to the house, sat around the fire pit talking and made Smores!

We had such a fun time relaxing and hanging out with great friends! I love these girls and guys and feel so incredibly blessed to have each of them in my life!

PS- Sorry for being a slacker with the picture taking!